


The Call

by JPLabguru



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Brian feels, Filling In the Gaps, Fluff and Angst, Headcanon, M/M, Preller, unedited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-27
Updated: 2015-11-27
Packaged: 2018-05-03 15:28:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5296568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JPLabguru/pseuds/JPLabguru
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jimmy and Brian receive that sort of late night telephone call that no one wants to get.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Call

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Jay Auris (nighthawkms)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nighthawkms/gifts).



June 25, 2015  
10:26 pm

 

Sixteen hours on the job, three autopsies, and twenty-two case files to complete will wear down even the most sturdy and experienced of forensic specialists, and Brian Zeller and Jimmy Price were no exception. One of the autopsies they endured was unusually stressful, as the woman on Brian’s autopsy table reminded them of someone they respected immensely. More than once, the two shared glances over her body, understanding that while this wasn’t her, it may as well have been. The likeness was overwhelming.

Tired, stressed out, the two men picked up Thai take-away for dinner and exercise for Brian wasn’t at the gym lifting weights or running, but in unexpectedly urgent and needful lovemaking. Jimmy felt that urgency, too: that need to connect, to be held. To know that Brian was there and real and solid and when they called out each other’s names at the height of passion, it made all the ugliness of the world melt away. FBI training and science aside, they felt the safest in each other’s arms.

They were engaging in that most beautiful tradition, that of post-coital pillow talk, when Brian’s phone buzzed awake. “Father Figure” rang out from the pocket of Brian’s jeans, slightly muffled by the fact that his jeans, along with his boxers, lay crumpled in a heap on the floor.

“You little shit, you did it again?” Brian snorted, pinching Jimmy’s waist. “You’re gonna get my ass kicked by Jack one day, putting that shit on my phone.” 

Jimmy laughed, at least until the pinch, then he yelped.

“It’s funny beca-- HEY! That hurts!” Squirming to get away only made Brian hold Jimmy that much more tightly.

“Knock it off, Price. See what I do to your --”

Brian’s phone abruptly stopped ringing. Jimmy’s started.

The two men went still, suddenly serious.

“It’s Bella. She’s gone, Brian. I know it.”

Brian inhaled sharply as he reached back to the nightstand to snag Jimmy’s phone, handing it to his husband. Sitting up to lean against the headboard, he wrapped one arm around Jimmy, then nodded.

Jimmy hesitated, then answered.

“Jack?”

Brian heard Jack’s voice, felt Jimmy tense slightly. He worried about Jimmy at times like these. Loss wasn’t something Brian handled very well himself, not after his sister’s death, but he managed. He coped. Rigorous exercise and throwing himself into his work helped numb his grief, and alcohol had soothed the sting on her birthdays and death anniversaries. 

Jimmy’s family ties had been severed decades earlier when he moved east to college, but Brian had seen how Jimmy handled grief, and it wasn’t pretty. Beverly’s murder almost unhinged him completely, the functional alcoholic giving way to a barely functioning one, and Brian feared he would lose his other best friend as well last year. He stroked Jimmy’s arm, and listened to Jimmy’s soft tenor rise and fall as he spoke to Jack, and remembered those dark days. He had prayed the man didn’t drink himself to death back then, and something or someone had answered those prayers.

And now, Bella.

Bella Crawford had only been Jack’s wife to Brian, and the times Jimmy gently asked about her or mentioned dropping by their house to take her flowers always made Brian feel uneasy. This was their boss’s wife -- their tall, loud, intimidating boss’s wife -- Jimmy was talking about, not another agent’s or one of the tech’s. But Jimmy had been to their home for Christmas dinner every year -- or as many years as life in the BAU allowed -- long before Brian arrived on the scene. Jimmy had, on one occasion, provided tiny jars of his organic honey for a bridal shower he helped Bella organize. Jimmy had taken a care basket to the hospital to her the time that Jack had an emergency appendectomy. Bella was his friend.

“Alright, Jack. Do you need a ride home? Ah, I see. Okay. I’m -- we’re terribly sorry, Jack. Let us know if you need anything. Goodbye.”

Jimmy sighed as he thumbed the phone off, tossing it on the nightstand. He settled back into Brian’s arms, and wrapped one of his own around Brian’s chest.

“When?”

“At 9:46 tonight. It was peaceful, Jack said. She just slipped away.”

Brian hugged Jimmy, then leaned down to kiss the top of his head. His voice rumbled in his chest as he murmured, “You okay, babe?” by which he meant, “Are you okay, right now, emotionally?” 

He also meant, whether he knew it or not, “Is this going to make you start drinking again? Should you call your sponsor? Should I start worrying again?” because he knew all about addicts, his sister having been one. Life with an addict felt like watching a rope fray, strand by strand, until it hung by one thin thread. You never knew what would make that last thread break.

Jimmy lay silently for several very long moments, listening to the quiet of the room, to Brian’s breathing, to the sounds the sheets made as he nestled closer to Brian. Finally, he spoke.

“I’m fine, Brian. I knew she couldn’t hold out much longer. Bella was a strong woman.” 

Jimmy turned onto his side and reached up to cup Brian’s cheek, his thumb lightly grazing over Brian’s lower lip. Brian kissed the pad of Jimmy’s thumb, searching for any hint of fissures in Jimmy’s eyes, any telltale cracks to warn him of impending danger. He didn’t see any, but then again, he hadn’t noticed them in his sister that last time he saw her.

Jimmy returned Brian’s gaze, regarding him through sharply focused eyes. He huffed out a short, distressed laugh, even as he stroked Brian’s lip and pressed his thumb against its fullest part.

“Your poker face sucks, Brian.” 

Brian frowned in confusion as Jimmy laughed again, but his smile faded and his face crumpled, tears welling in his eyes. His hand slid toward Brian’s hair, his fingers combing through Brian’s thick curls.

“I don’t need alcohol, you jackass. I need you. ”

Brian smiled softly, as a confused wave of relief and concern washed over his face. His eyes filled with tears, too, an echo of Jimmy’s own. A few of his tears may have been misinterpreted as being a response to the sad news of Bella’s death, but as he pressed Jimmy down on the bed, and kissed him, he felt light. And as Jimmy’s body responded to his own, as their kisses deepened with increasing heat, his worries faded away into the knowledge that everything in their world was alright. At least for right now.

**Author's Note:**

> This quick ficlet (or whatever you'd call it) is my response to the Price and Zeller scene that was cut from "Aperitivo" in S3E4. I do not buy into the idea that Jimmy Price is that oblivious to the people around him, especially not after Beverly's murder and Jack's brush with death. 
> 
> This was intended to be Jimmy's story, but Brian Zeller was insistent that he tell this through his point of view, and honestly, it's too hard to argue with him.
> 
> Brian's sister comes from Jay Auris's headcanon regarding Brian's family of origin and his past experiences, which I have absorbed into my own. Jay is my writing and roleplay partner in all things Preller, and this is dedicated to her.


End file.
